Identifying biomarkers and surrogates of tumors (cancer biometrics): correlation with immunotherapies and immune cells.

The presence of inflammatory cells within cancer has been described for quite some time by pathologists, with generally improved outcome associated with their presence in various epithelial neoplasms. Most remarkably, this has included dendritic cells and T cells but more recently NK cells as well. Coupled with the rapid evolution of molecular technology, microarray analyses of primary tumors, serum and tumor proteomics, tumor capture analyses in the peripheral blood (together with quantitative RT-PCR), and novel histochemical markers and tissue microarrays, this provides the opportunity to establish a more effective means to study and classify into subsets various forms of cancer. Much of the current controversy in cancer diagnosis and pathologic assessment of prognosis lies in the application of these techniques in concert with other molecular tools including DNA microarrays, expression of histochemically defined cytokines, proangiogenic factors, and oncogene products, and correlating this with clinical relevance. Molecular detection technologies such as reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, proteomics, and microarray analyses will be validated based on their integration with conventional cancer pathology and cancer diagnostics. Further work is needed to establish which cancer biomarkers and surrogates should be routinely measured and in which settings, and determining the appropriate sample size for such assays that can be validated in retrospective and prospective clinical studies. The ability to integrate these rapidly evolving strategies will consume much of our coordinate effort in cancer and cancer therapeutics for the near future.